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Shimonoseki

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Shimonoseki shē´mōnōsā˝kē [key], city (1990 pop. 262,635), Yamaguchi prefecture, extreme SW Honshu, Japan. An important port and fishing center on Shimonoseki Strait, it is opposite Kitakyushu , with which it is connected by bridge and tunnel. Shimonoseki is a railroad and industrial center, with engineering works, shipyards, and metal and chemical plants. It is also a port, with ferry connections to Busan (Pusan), South Korea. In the city is Akamagu, a 12th-century shrine dedicated to Emperor Antoku and to the Taira clan, which was defeated at Shimonoseki by the Minamoto clan in the famous naval battle of Dan-no-ura. In 1864 a fleet of U.S., British, French, and Dutch ships bombarded the port in retaliation for hostile acts of the Choshu clan. The Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the Sino-Japanese War, was negotiated and signed in 1895. The Shimonoseki Aquarium is the largest in Japan.